Monday, November 30, 2015

For DreamTime today, we'll go digging into some online art galleries to find art pieces that represent the characters in Of Mice and Men as well as ourselves. Any of this work would make for fantastic blogging and could potentially demonstrate both your creativity and your reading standards.

After DreamTime we'll get right into designing our Tiny Houses. We'll use a modified version of a technique that Google uses to redesign its tools. I call our version 8 Box.

Step 1. Fold a piece of paper into 8 boxes.

Step 2. You will have 60 seconds to doodle your ideas for a tiny house in Box 1.

Steps 3-9. You will have another 60 seconds to doodle in the next available box. You may expand on your ideas from Box 1. Or you may start a completely new idea. Keep in mind the research and empathy you have done.

Step 10. You have 10 minutes to doodle and sketchnote and label your design for a Tiny House for Lennie, George, Candy and Crooks. We will be sharing these, giving and receiving feedback. Make sure you title your design.

Step 12. Use the feedback to help make decisions in your team as you embark on creating your prototype!

Step 13. BUILDDDDDDDD! MAKKKKKKEEEE!!

SHOW YOUR THINKING

Blog.

1+ Posts.

Due. Friday. 12.4.15.

Critical Creativity Challenge: An Art Gallery for Of Mice and Men.

Visit MOMA.org, Portland Museum of Art, MFA.org or another online art gallery from a gallery that exists in the brick and mortar world (a place people could physically visit) and select three or more pieces of art that you would include in a gallery to represent the ideas in Of Mice and Men. Consider also adding an art gallery for you!

Study. Roots 6.

Quiz. Wednesday. 12.9.15

Design Challenge.

EXPERIMENT and PRODUCTION Phase.

Tiny House. Design a Tiny House Prototype for Lennie, George, Crooks and Candy

DESIGN AND CLASSROOM PRESENTATION Due. Friday. 12.11.15

Presentation may be recorded prior to class and shown.

.

SHOW YOUR WORK.

Blog.

1+ Posts.

Due. Friday. 12.4.15

Critical Creativity Challenge: An Art Gallery for Of Mice and Men.

Visit MOMA.org, Portland Museum of Art, MFA.org or another online art gallery from a gallery that exists in the brick and mortar world (a place people could physically visit) and select three or more pieces of art that you would include in a gallery to represent the ideas in Of Mice and Men.

We start playing with Diigo, the tool we will use to do our DISCOVERY Phase research for our long term design challenge: How might we design on-demand analytical writing for the AP Lit test?

We'll use December for DISCOVERY research. There will be a rubric this week on the expectations for this research around the criteria of variety, reliability and relevance. The research will be due 12.22.15.

Visit MOMA.org, Portland Museum of Art, MFA.org or another online art gallery from a gallery that exists in the brick and mortar world (a place people could physically visit) and select three or more pieces of art that you would include in a gallery to represent the ideas in The Hours.

Design.

Synthesis #2. Thesis & Sketchnote/Map/Outline

Due. Next Class.

Source Material & Constraint. Anything We Have Read This Year as a Class.

We're going to start with DreamTime in the shape of a map of Mt. Blue Campus. Brackett will be taking us through an experience to map out where the cliques and clans of MBC gather. We'll be adding more information to this map as we work through more of Speak this week.

Then we'll run through a new discussion format for us: chalk talk. We'll be reviewing the work we've done this year that relates to the four phases of the DEEP design thinking process.

And then . . . back to Freaks and Geeks to finish the pilot episode.

To connect the dots between Freaks and Speak and Mt. Blue Campus, you'll be completing a comparison matrix that is currently posted on Google Classroom. This is due on Wednesday and would make excellent evidence for your Reading standard on the blog -- if you complete it well and choose to include it there.

Tuesday, stations galore.

SHOW YOUR THINKING.

Blog.

1+ Posts.

Due. Friday. 12.4.2015

Critical Creativity Challenge: An Art Gallery for Speak.

Visit MOMA.org, Portland Museum of Art, MFA.org or another online art gallery from a gallery that exists in the brick and mortar world (a place people could physically visit) and select three or more pieces of art that you would include in a gallery to represent the ideas in Speak.

We start our documentary design challenge today, giving us the opportunity to explore the facets of pop culture we find particularly important or meaningful to us individually while also examining a form of storytelling that continues to have a huge impact on us culturally.

How might we design 3 minute documentaries in 18 days?

Today we begin DISCOVERY Phase.

First, you'll need a design team of 1, 2 or 3 members.

Then we'll do quick spidea sketchnotes in our teams to determine what ideas, experiences, understandings we already have -- or think we have -- about documentaries

We'll dive right into watching clips from several documentaries and using a new discovery strategy to identify the qualities of an effective documentary as well as the questions that a filmmaker has to ask when making a documentary. I'm calling it a Q & Q chart.

We'll watch clips from:

A Band Called DeathSpinning PlatesMagical UniverseGame OverI Hate Christian LaettnerBlackfish

Note: We might experiment with our finding on Padlet before using Post-Its on Friday to help us sort.

Tonight, you will each need to explore as many documentaries as possible. You don't need to watch the entirety -- chunks of several is fine -- but you want to see as many as possible.

On Wednesday, we will continue our research with several clips from which you may choose and a round of "What if . . . " and this exercise we haven't tried yet in class called 8 Box. It's a way of visualizing a bunch of ideas in a hurry.

We might be using a new tool called Diigo to help us keep track of our research.

And then on Friday, we will take stock of our research, identify the key criteria to effective documentaries, and develop an empathy poll for the users of our documentaries to answer and Qs to be asked over next weekend.

It's a lot going on for certain.

Focus on today and what you need to do for tonight. And remember, there's still blogging going on and a new critical creativity challenge to go after.

Show Your Thinking.

Blog.

1+ Post Due Friday. 12.4.15

Optional Critical Creativity Challenges:

Option 1. Document your week using only emojis. Be as specific as possible.

Option 2. Watch and review a complete documentary. It may be from our lists or another you've discovered.

Option 3. Gamify Your Life. What if your life was a game? What shape would it take? How would it be played?

Documentary Design Challenge. Discovery Phase.

Watch. Clips of at least 3 other documentaries.

Complete a new Q and Q form based on the documentaries you watch. Be sure to identify which doc spurs which thinking.